Volunteer observers bring credibility to fair elections

Trained volunteers who watch paid election workers count and process ballot papers are essential to our democracy, says Christopher Johnson, who has been volunteering in Pierce County for 15 years.

“It has to be done,” said Johnson, who has also coordinated Republican Party’s volunteer monitors in Pierce County for the past decade.

Johnson, a retired statistician, says election observation by certified volunteers is like having citizens sit on a jury.

“Overall, the jury process works,” said Johnson. “That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Likewise, properly conducted elections that are observed work well. “

As early as 2000 – and probably even earlier – nationwide presidential elections had people following the polls. The practice in Washington lasted until 1977, when legislation established a system of trained volunteers from both major political parties and independent groups to monitor workers in each of the state’s 39 counties.

The system adds credibility, say election officials and observers from across the state.

“I am reassured to know that we are ensuring that the electoral officials handle the ballot papers in an expert and professional manner,” said Julian F. Wheeler, Johnson’s colleague who coordinates the Democratic Party’s observers in Pierce County.

Nan Peele of the Tacoma-Pierce County League of Women Voters coordinates Pierce County’s third group of volunteer observers – a non-party group of independents.

The coordinators – Peele, Wheeler and Johnson – say the problems they observed do not include any wrongdoing, despite national claims.

“Most of the problems we run into are election workers trying to be knowledgeable and maybe they are cutting back on them to be efficient,” Johnson said. “This is where observers from both parties see the problem. And it will be solved. “

Observer training for volunteers differs from county to county. In some it is a brief overview; elsewhere it can be up to two hours of instruction. But in essence it is about this point: observers watch and do not count any processing.

“You are not allowed to touch ballot papers or machines,” said Paddy McGuire, Mason County auditor. You cannot speak to election workers directly either. Instead, they are assigned a manager to whom they report problems. “If you have a problem, come to us.”

McGuire said observers can watch every aspect of ballot processing.

“You can see ballot papers coming through the door, our sorting process, checking the signature, opening the envelopes, flattening the ballot papers, checking the voting papers, and scrolling the voting papers through the scanners.”

The most common problem observed by observers has to do with verifying the signature, according to McGuire. Signature verification is difficult, and its staff is trained annually by the Washington State Patrol to master the skill.

The facilities and the proximity of the observers to the election workers also differ from district to district.

“Our processing center is a former conference room and we have no physical separation between workers and observers,” said McGuire.

But his office recently installed cameras at the polling center that allow people to track the place online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“If someone says they saw someone in the polling room at 3 a.m., we can say, ‘Let’s look at the tape.'”

Pierce County’s chartered accountant Julie Anderson said citizen observers logged 1,121 hours during the November 2021 general election.

“We had a very stable and peaceful election in Pierce County, and I owe that very much to the observers. We have very strong political party members who vouch for security. It’s good for us because it holds us accountable.

“And it is good for the voter because there are others who check that we are following our published procedures and that we are acting with integrity.”

Pierce has an area that the public can stop by and watch from behind a see-through partition. That’s not the case in Spokane County, where election manager Mike McLaughlin said about 100 citizens have been trained to be observers. There are three groups of citizen watchers in Spokane County: groups appointed by the two major political parties and one group appointed by candidates or campaigns.

The Spokane office can simultaneously host three observers from the Republican Party, three from the Democratic Party, and two from candidates and campaigns. “There are a maximum of eight observers at any one time,” said McLaughlin.

Despite the importance of duty, Pierce County’s Johnson cautions people not to think that it will be exciting to watch.

“I tell them it’s not like watching paint dry. It’s like watching other people drying. “

Exciting or not, most observers and electoral officials agree that volunteer observers are necessary.

“When people tell me elections are fraudulent, I say come over,” said McGuire of Mason County. “I think monitoring is an important part of dispelling this fraudulent ballot madness.”